Volume 8, 2017

The Other Half of Communism: Women's Outlook

Iemima Ploscariu

Pages 147-166

DOI: 10.5840/hce201787

Rhetoric and RitualNeo-Protestant Women and Gender Equality in Communist Romania

In communist Romania, as in other Central and East European communist countries, women became fellow workers in the building of the new proletariat state. However, there was a discrepancy between state rhetoric and the treatment of women in reality. Though not the most targeted faith group in communist Romania, neo-Protestant women faced, nevertheless, multiple levels of marginalization, due to their sex and to their religion. These women re-appropriated the state’s gender equality rhetoric and, along with their faith, produced a sense of personal agency, which allowed them to overcome barriers in their various communities.